Two messages

No excuse

Recently we received messages from the planet Mars in the form of photographs from the NASA Martian rover Curiosity. Psalm 19 contains two messages from God

God’s power

The songwriter personifies the universe: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world” (Ps. 19:1-4aNIV). When David was a shepherd, he lived outdoors and would have admired the sun, moon and stars (Ps. 8:3; 19:4b-6).

What message does the universe “declare”, “proclaim”, “reveal” and “voice”? That it is “the work of His hands”: God created the universe. Great knowledge and power would be required to provide the countless stars, the immense distances and the warmth of the sun. By looking at the universe, it is evident that God is a powerful Creator.

God’s love

When the songwriter turns to describe Scripture (which at that time comprised portions of the Old Testament written before 1000BC), he changes the title of God from “El” (Strong’s #410) the powerful One behind creation, to “Yahweh” (#3068) the personal loving One who cares for His chosen people. Scripture is a written message from God.

What is the message of Scripture? David’s Scripture largely contained God’s dealings with the Jews and their ancestors. He said that they were refreshing, and they provided wisdom, joy, insight and warnings (Ps. 19: 7-11). In particular, God made covenants with the children of Israel in the days of Abraham, Moses and David (Gen. 12:2-3; Ex. 19-24; Lev.; 2 Sam. 7:5-16). In this He showed His love for them – although they would reject Him, He would not reject them (Lev. 26:43-44). By reading the Old Testament, it is evident that God lovingly cared for His people, the descendants of Abraham.

Lessons for us

Today we still have the visible message of the created universe and the written message of the Bible. We have no excuse for not knowing what God has done for us (Rom. 1:20). Paul quoted Psalm 19:4 (the message of God’s power) when he wrote that people had heard the message of God’s love as shown by Jesus (Rom. 10:18). We have this message written in the New Testament.

Can you say: “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care” (Ps. 95:6-7)?

Written, August 2012